Also, the first General Body Meeting (GBM) of the 2022-23 school year will be Friday, September 9, at 6:00 pm. Check out the FTC Linktree for the Zoom link.
It’s going to be a great year, and we are glad you are here. See you around!
As the FTC leadership team prepares for the 2022-2023 school year, we would love to hear your feedback. We invite you to take a few minutes to share your thoughts and ideas about your FTC experiences this year.
The survey takes between 5 to 15 minutes to complete and will be open through Thursday, June 30. The survey can be found here or through the FTC LinkTree (https://linktr.ee/ucf.ftc).
We really appreciate your time. Thank you for letting us know how FTC can serve you better in the future.
Welcome to the Summer 2022 edition of the Future Technical Communicators newsletter! Summer is here, and with that, another school year is complete. Congratulations to each of you for making it through the semester. A special shoutout goes to each of our newly graduated members and those graduating this summer. You have accomplished so much to reach this goal and your futures are bright! Know that the FTC community always has your back, and you are always welcome to stay involved; we love seeing our alumni.
Moving forward, FTC hopes to build on the foundations we set this year by refining what we have and continuing to evolve. To help our club do so, we have put together an End-of-Year survey. We would love to hear your feedback and invite you to take a few minutes to share your thoughts and ideas about your FTC experiences this year with us.
We look forward to seeing all that is to come for FTC and the experiences that our club’s members and leaders, both returning and new, will forge together. If there is any way that FTC can assist you, email us at [email protected] or feel free to start a conversation on our Discord server.
All the best,
John Clement
President, Future Technical Communicators club at UCF
Congratulations, you’ve made it to the end of another semester! While there is much to celebrate from the past school year, it’s time to shift our focus to the months ahead. Many FTC leaders will be graduating soon, so this is a great time to learn more about leadership opportunities in the club.
Join us to learn about being a leader in FTC and how you can join the team. Current leaders will be sharing their experiences and answering questions.
All are welcome to join!
The meeting will be held on Tuesday, May 10, at 7:00 pm (call will open at 6:30 pm for anyone who wants to join early). Visit https://linktr.ee/ucf.ftc for Zoom details.
Welcome back from Spring Break! The third installment of FTC’s Speaker Series is this Friday, March 18 at 6:00 pm. John Paz will lead a discussion about how to get your first job in technical writing. He will be joined by a few of his mentees to answer all your tech writing questions.
Join us this Friday, February 25, from 6:30-8:30pm for the annual STC/FTC meeting. In honor of FTC’s 20th anniversary, the topic for this joint meeting is “Where Are They Now?” To join, be sure to RSVP through STC in order to receive the Zoom link.
Two decades ago, FTC was established and many members have come and gone, accomplishing great things along the way. To celebrate FTC’s history, a panel of past FTC leaders will be sharing their experiences and answering questions about their career paths.
Panelists include:
Jen Selix
Bonnie Spivey
Brittney Cooke
Rachael Swertferger
Dana Georgopolous
R.D. Sharninghouse
Amy Truong
You won’t want to miss this special joint annual STC-FTC meeting. Bring your technical communication questions and come ready to receive great technical communication advice.
Bonnie Spivey is a 20-year veteran in the technical communications umbrella of professions. Currently, she is a Director of Global Marketing Operations and Project Management Office at Universal Parks and Resorts. In this capacity, she oversees projects related to the design, development, and implementation of usage of Universal Studio’s multibillion-dollar array of ‘digital media assets’. To you and me, this includes things like Harry Potter, the Minions,
Transformers, and even Coca Cola. Bonnie’s team comprises technical communicators in so many flavors, include business analysts, project managers, and product owners (just to name a
few).
Bonnie has her BA in Technical Communication from UCF (go Knights!!!). She has her MBA from Stetson University in DeLand. Among her professional accreditations are five US patents (including one for a Dining Management Experience at Disney, and a Unified Access Control system at Universal Studios). She was awarded the 2013 New Venture Consulting Award at Universal right after earning the Disney Inventor Award at Disney (her third one!).
Bonnie, who is the founder of the current iteration of the Future Technical Communicators (FTC) served as its first president. For the parent STC organization, Bonnie contributed through presentations, workshops, and mentoring (she was the co-founder (with Dan Voss!) of the STC-
FTC mentoring program). Bonnie is proud of her FTC/STC roots and looks forward to
Jen Selix graduated from the University of Central Florida in 2005, with a B.A. in English, Technical Writing. She spent several years exploring the Orlando, FL tech comm scene, as an independent contractor, helping companies like NBC Universal, Bloomin’ Brands, Verizon, Express Scripts, and Walt Disney World to develop technical and instructional content. In 2010, Jen decided to dive deeper into the educational side of technical communication and enrolled in the Education Media Design and Technology accelerated M.S. program at Full Sail University. The additional accreditation proved to be a catalyst, allowing Jen to earn a highly coveted role at Amazon, as the global Training Manager for Amazon Web Services (AWS) Customer Support and later move on to managing corporate communications for AWS Professional Services. Today, on her 5 year Amazon anniversary, Jen is excited to share the story of how her engagement with FTC and STC have played a pivotal role in her career growth and development. She is excited to connect and offer career coaching for any FTC or STC members who would like to learn about career opportunities at Amazon/AWS.
Hi, I’m Dana. I have a degree in Technical Communication from UCF and offer over 10 years of technical, web-based, and corporate communications experience. My strength is writing and editing online support content, especially within the field of Knowledge Management. Even though online support is my specialty, I also enjoy exploring other forms of media. I’ve collaborated on scripts for Telly-award-winning instructional (how-to videos) during my time at Bright House Networks. And I’m currently responsible for company-wide communications at Suncoast Credit Union. My goal is to provide exceptional content that’s tailored to unique audiences.
Rachael is currently enjoying life as a stay-at-home mom with her son, David, born October 2020. Prior to being a stay-at-home mom, she worked as a technical writer at Lockheed Martin, Carley Corporation, and Optum. At Lockheed, she worked on operator and maintainer manuals where she wrote the instructions and created supporting graphics using ArborText, HyperSTE, FrameMaker, Photoshop, and Illustrator. While at Optum, she focused on scripting and supporting documentation in their knowledge base for call agents to use while on the phone. She’s also worked with students in afterschool programs hosted at the library assisting with homework help and teaching them how to play and run their own Dungeons & Dragons games, while supporting the small non-profit by writing the monthly newsletter, maintaining the website, creating and preparing program materials, and managing the social media platforms.
Brittney Cooke is a communications expert with over 10 years of experience, mostly in the Medicare Advantage industry. She is a UCF alumnus and former FTC Vice President. She is currently a Senior Marketing Project Manager at Anthem, Inc., where she oversees marketing campaigns and executes material development, ensuring accuracy and timely completion in accordance with government-mandated deadlines. She is passionate about making a difference in the lives of seniors throughout the country. Brittney is also a Certified Professional Résumé Writer (CPRW) and founded Enhanced Résumé and Writing Services in 2021. She holds a B.A. in English (Technical Communications) and is currently pursuing her Marketing MBA at Saint Leo University. In her free time, she enjoys spending quality time with her husband and kids, traveling, and eating good food!
Mrs. Truong graduated from UCF in 2019 with a degree in Technical Communications. During her time at UCF, she was involved in the Future Technical Communicators club, first as Secretary, and then as President. She was also a member of the Society of Technical Communicators and was involved in the mentorship program. She credits both the FTC and STC with helping her land her first technical writing job. Mrs. Truong has been a technical writer working in the defense industry for more than two years. When she’s not working, Mrs. Truong enjoys working in her yard and going on long walks with her husband and their dog, Bjorn. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ameliatruong
The second installment of FTC’s Speaker Series is this Friday, February 11 at 6:00 pm. Join us as we talk with technical writing professional and UCF alumnus John Paz about “Resume Righting.”
You may remember John from our first Speaker Series session when he shared trends in tech comm and how to improve soft and hard skills. He’s back this week to answer all our questions about how to write the “right” resume.
